PB&J Thumbprint Cookies

I mean I guess it’s nice to get basic human social interaction and all, but these cookies have peanut butter in them…

So…there’s that.

Wow don’t mind my dry cracked skin in the photo above. Gross.

Can a betch get a bottle of lotion up in here? I mean it’s 60 degrees in Los Angeles therefore it is definitely freezing and officially winter.

Anywho, a very crafty friend of mine gave me a jar of homemade prickly pear jam a couple months ago. YUM! But, it sat in my fridge. I was stumped. I didn’t know what to make with it or how to eat it (besides the obvious route via spoonfuls in mouth). I really wanted a peanut butter and jelly cookie, but I wanted to make them a bit healthier, so these are made using a secret ingredient…

If you don’t tell people that they’re made out of chickpeas…they will never know.

Look at my best friend’s baby…completely and utterly unaware that her cookie was indeed filled with healthy fats, fiber, manganese, folate, and a huge dose of protein. In fact, Maya scarfed down 3 right after her slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

These cookies are as beautiful as they are tasty; the rich peanut butter and the hearty oats are the perfect accompaniment to that saweeeeeeet jelly filling. I made half of them with pumpkin butter instead of the jam and those, too, disappeared from the plate almost instantly. BAI.

Make these with any kind of jelly you have on hand…or try apple/pumpkin butter and let me know what strikes your PB&J fancy…also make sure to crank up your most irritating christmas music (think Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Feliz Navidad) and start getting in that holiday spirit.

Get out that handy dandy food processor. You’re gonna need it! Combine the chickpeas, peanut butter, 1/4 cup of the oats, sugar, soymilk, and baking powder in the food processor and process until a smooth dough forms. Soooo labor intensive, I know.

Transfer dough to a medium sized bowl and add in the remaining oats (1 3/4 cup). Mix in the oats until the dough becomes more solid and less sticky.

Grease a cookie sheet and shape the dough into individual balls. This dough will definitely stick to your fingers no matter what, so you’ll probably have to wash them a couple times throughout the process or the cookies will lose their shape and become uglier and uglier. I licked my fingers in lieu of hand washing. Mind your own business, this is my kitchen.

Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until cookies become firm and a soft golden brown color. Keep checking them so they don’t burn. Let cool before eating. These are really good straight out of the freezer, too, so if you can’t gobble them all up at one time, let them chillskeez, enjoy them later, and they will not disappoint.